Hello,
Here is the letter from ASA's President. He requested me to forward it.
Jugal Kalita
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From: Mantu Baishya
President, Assam Society of America
5104 N 140th Street, Omaha, NE 68164
Subject: Assam 2004 Date: April 25, 2004
Dear Friends,
I am writing to you today to bring you up-to-date on Assam 2004, the
proposed annual Joint conference for the year 2004. As you know, the
Assamese community in North America has been coming together for a joint
conference once a year during the weekend of July Fourth. As a tradition
started in 1999, the joint conferences have brought together the diverse
Assamese community under a single roof. After nearly twenty years of
divisions in the community, these joint conferences have helped alleviate
many of the differences that earlier contributed to each segment of the
society celebrating its own individual conference. The community has also
adopted a neutral, non-partisan name for the event, which has become one
of the most important hallmarks that demonstrates the unity of the
community and the compromises each organization made to attain this
unity. The first joint conference was held in Houston, Texas in 1999
named as �20th Assam Convention/26th Assam Day (The Houston Convention
1999)�. Since then, New Jersey: �Assam Conference�, Toronto: �Assam
2001�, Denver: �Assam 2002� and St. Louis �Assam 2003� have hosted
successful joint conferences.
For the year 2004, the California Assamese community first made an
invitation during Assam2002 in Denver. ASA accepted the invitation and
AANA mentioned that they will give due consideration for the invitation.
Based on this acceptance, the California community began making
preparations for hosting the conference. However, during Assam 2003 in
St. Louis, a group of individuals from the Texas area decided to hold the
conference in Austin, Texas. The reason forwarded by the Texas members
was that the California community lacked "credibility" to host an
Assamese conference. This accusation was of course not fair and without
any merit, not to mention that this was an insult to the California
community. However, the Texas individuals were adamant that the next
conference be held in Austin, Texas.
Assam Society of America, for the benefit of the Assamese community
decided to have the joint conference in Texas based on the resolution
that the conference would be a "Joint Convention", and would be
co-sponsored by ASA, AANA, and other Assamese organizations, with each
organization participating as an equal member. However, once the Texas
individuals started preparations for the conference, it slowly became
obvious that the group (which had by now elected a Host Committee of
solely AANA members), were preparing to host a conference for the benefit
AANA only. The first and most obvious of the indications was that they
named the conference "Assam Convention", which was going back to the
partisan way of naming conferences of the past. Obviously, this was not
acceptable to ASA.
During the following months, members of the Assamese community have
discussed the matter with the Texas Committee. All that the discussion
ended up was a rigid stance of non-cooperation. I am extremely sorry to
say that three months of discussion and persuasion could not bring any
useful conclusion. The Texas Committee is fully aware that their decision
will have far-reaching consequences, including the foreseeable risk that
the Assamese community will once again fracture, which in turn will lead
to separate conferences. Yet they are adamant.
In spite of the inflexible stand of the Texas Committee, other members of
the ASA executive committee and I had still hoped that they would
eventually accommodate to our legitimate and fair views. We held on to
this hope until this past week. However, during the past week, the Texas
committee has mailed invitations to Assam Convention, and not to the
Joint Convention that we had hoped to attend. At this point, I see no
reason to continue hoping any longer. Therefore, together with other
members of ASA, I am faced with an extremely difficult decision to make.
It would be unfair to attend the Texas Convention under such unfair
circumstances.
The alternative left for us is to have a separate get together for us.
However, this will ruin the all the good work our moderate members have
done since 1999 to put all the groups together. I am very hopeful that in
future years we will have a host committee that is accommodating and
eager to see the whole Assamese community under one roof. By not going to
Austin, we will definitely miss our annual fun-filled event, but we would
not sit down and lament on it. ASA Executives and I are proposing a few
community service projects in Assam. Assam Society of America already
sponsors several projects such as the �Adopt A Child� program, the �ASA
Scholarships� programs and �Save Our Culture� program. Perhaps, we could
contribute some of the money we would have spent on attending the
conference towards these projects.
I have discussed this option with the Executive Committee and other
members of the community. They have been very receptive of the idea. At
this time, we still have to work out the details such as which projects
to undertake and how best to manage them. However, before we proceed, I
wanted to let you know and request your support. While I realize that not
attending the conference will have some consequences, I hope you will
agree with me that this is the moral thing to do. It is the wise thing to
do if we are to hope that in future years we will be able to again come
together as a community in spite of the polarizing intentions of a few
stubborn individuals. In the next few days, I will attempt to discuss
this proposition with more members of the community and finalize a plan
about how we can undertake these projects. If you have any suggestions or
wish to discuss the proposal, please feel free to email me at
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or to call me at (402) 397-2283. In the meantime, I
hope that I can count on your support not only to make our projects
successful, but to also send a strong message to the Texas Committee that
their actions will have consequences.
Mantu Baishya,
President, Assam Society of America
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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